The Southern Baptists, as everybody knows, think highly of procreation but strenuously disapprove of attaching too much importance to your marriage and family. Just last week, for instance, John Piper thought it useful to remind his Twitter followers that a woman who thinks her children are more important than pleasing the Invisible Wizard is serving Satan.
Satan is just as happy to see us put motherhood before God as a successful career. https://t.co/nU6BosaIpP
— Desiring God (@desiringGod) July 26, 2017
What do you know? Now comes a Southern Baptist pastor who is feeling a mite peevish that fewer people want to get married in church.
Yeah. I get it. This is the age of weddings being a self-expression of the couple, mostly the bride, I’d guess. Thus, weddings in barns, farms, and pastures; on beaches, in the mountains, at museums, gardens, wineries; rodeos, ballgames, roller skating rinks. The possibilities are endless.
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So, exactly how do pastors think about handling this trend of boutique, unique weddings where the Reverend is considered something slightly more than a potted plant but infinitely less than the self-actualized and celebrated bride?
Please. Every man in the universe who has been through a wedding knows perfectly well that the groom himself is merely a needful accessary; the pastor hasn’t any business feeling sorry for himself.
Like the cult-like Christian teachings about marriage itself, it’s all about control — and the pastor’s peevishness is about the loss of control. I’m glad they’re losing control, and I look forward to the day when being married in church is unusual. The greatest of Christianity’s serial indecencies is its attempted displacement of marriage as the central relationship in life, and I think this is a trend that sane and decent-minded adults should welcome.